This Week's SATURDAY SHORTS: Cowboys, Gods, and Quitting Your Jobs!

Hello ladies and gentlemen, your pal Muldoon here with this week's lovely (and slightly disturbing at times) installment of SATURDAY SHORTS, your very own international film fest that once a week delivers interesting films created by fellow AICN readers that you can watch at your leisure. This week we've got quite a serving of genre fun, as well as some wonderful non-grotesque films - all of which were crafted by folks with a keen eye for quality. It's no secret I'm all about the horror/sci-fi film fun and so I couldn't resist slipping a few in, but if that's not your particular piece of pie - no worries, just scroll on to the next and (fingers crossed) you'll have your mind blown by another. My goal here is pretty simple: I want to show the AICN readers films/ideas/creative gambles that they would not have caught otherwise. YouTube and Vimeo are filled with videos, a mountainous pit of imagery where you can easily fall down into some murky time vampires of cinematic garbage. Here, I just hope you walk away (or is it "click away?) having seen something that stood out to you, something that's worth the cover charge (oh, snaps... wait it's all free). So enough chitter chatter on my end, let's get to watching!

Karl Maddix kicks this week off with his lovely blending of animation, incredible style, and imaginative visuals. "The Gods of Olympus have descended upon London for the Olympic Games to battle it out for the Olympic torch. Our Heroine Olympia, the embodiment of the flame and the Olympic spirit, must defeat the evil Hades in a trial of athleticism and relight the torch atop Mount Olympus." If you like what you see, be sure to hit up the film's website for a making of bit!

Up next we have a magically rich film in the vein of THE FALL or PRI NCESS BRIDE in that it's a story being told to a youngling. It's told with beautiful landscapes, interesting characters, and spot on music all wrapped around slightly supernatural/sci-fi elements. It might not be everyone's taste, but it's definitely mine. Apparently this piece was created almost as a proof of concept for a potential TV show. I'm definitely curious and would like to see more, so best of luck to director Krystof Zlatnik and his team. Be sure to hit up Krystof's website here!

GENESIS

TRT: 8:53

Bam! Next up is a short from CJ Johnson, a vfx soufflé of independent spirited fun. "Set in an alternate present day, in a world where people with super abilities known as "genesis subjects" are hunted down by the government, a larger political debate is happening worldwide. When a "hunter" comes face to face with an old friend who refuses to go quietly into the night, he's faced with his toughest mission yet. Discovering that he may just be a pawn in a much larger game. This is a gritty take on a world filled with people with super abilities. No costumes. No capes. Just a simple question… if someone you knew had special powers, does that mean that they still have the same rights as everyone else? This is a passion project, inspired by X-Men comics and Steven Soderbergh's "Traffic"."

From Jesse Collier at Ravilad! we have our next film, a nicely cut (seriously, the mud throw... very quick/Raimi/Rodriguez-ish) film that tells the unusual story of "Melissa!" "'Melissa!' tells the tale of a man and his hideously deformed daughter. Born through the perversion of science, the grotesque Melissa must be kept hidden from a fearful society. Melissa's chance encounter with a local boy will set the wheels in motion for a story that explores how society treats outcasts - with a thrilling and violent conclusion." Hit up Jesse's site!

To springboard us all off into next week with a bit of pep in our step - we have an absurd comedy from Olivier Bonenfant. "A perpetual drowning at the office and a surprise promotion could change the monotony of this Belgian on the verge of breakdown. Shot in 72 hours in Brussels during the Kino Kabaret International de Bruxelles in the Brussels Short Film Festival in 2011. This version was screened at Kino Montréal on the 7th of june 2013 after a sprint to finish the film with a new soundtrack from musician Julien-Robert (julienrobert.net)."

Boosh! That's it for this week guys and gals. Thanks for checking in, I hope you enjoyed yourselves, and you'll be down to check out some cool flicks with me next week. But hey, hop on any of the links below to travel back in time to past servings of SATURDAY SHORTS:

If you have a short and think it belongs here or are on the fence about whether to send it in, please do send it in - I'd love to see what you've put together. I've already seen hundreds of fresh new filmmakers' shorts and like any good addict, I need more!

Shoot me an email at "Mike@aintitcool.com"

In the subject line include:

“SHORTS” + “Your film’s name” + “The film’s genre”

Then, in the body of the email, please include a synopsis of the film and any contact information you might think I need or would want published. The more info you send my way, the more info there is to put with your short.

Please don’t feel the need to submit multiple times.

Remember, the filmmakers might still be in the audience, so feel free to share your thoughts in Talkbacks below. (JUST DON'T BE AN ASSHOLE). I picked them, so you know I think highly of all of these, but how about you fine folks? How'd you like 'em?

BY THE WAY: If you've had a short featured here, that means that I personally am a fan of your work, so feel free to shoot me any kind of news on new projects/films/whatever. I can't say I'll be able to help or in what capactiy, but I'm interested in your work and am always down to see more! (Keep making cool stuff, everyone!)